Reflections on “Researching and Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language”

Authors

  • Christian M.I.M. Matthiessen The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/rtcfl.v1i1.27271

Keywords:

Chinese Language, Multilingualism

Abstract

The launch of RTCFL, Researching and Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language, under the outstanding guidance by Professor Yang Yanning is truly excellent news for (applied) linguists concerned with crucial importance of Chinese as a Foreign Language and for teachers of Chinese as a Foreign Language — but also for present and future learners of Chinese, who will benefit from new insights that will be disseminated through the journal, and for applied linguists more generally. So much of applied linguistics concerned with second / foreign language teaching and learning has been focussed on English, but RTCFL will provide new insights based on the educational engagement with another “major language”. Naturally, it is essential that “minor languages” should also be given theoretical and practical attention in this area, including minority languages in China and elsewhere in modern nation states where “small languages” and their communities of speakers are facing unprecedent challenges in extended history of “vanishing voices” and “dying words” over the last ten thousand years or so (see e.g. Grenoble & Whaley, 2006; Hagège, 2000; Harrison, 2007; Nettle & Romaine, 2000).

Author Biography

  • Christian M.I.M. Matthiessen, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

    Christian M.I.M. Matthiessen is a Swedish-born linguist and a leading figure in the systemic functional linguistics (SFL) school, having authored or co-authored more than 100 books, refereed journal articles, and papers in refereed conference proceedings, with contributions to three television programs. He is currently Chair Professor in the Department of English at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Before this, he was Chair of the Department of Linguistics at Macquarie University in Sydney. Professor Matthiessen has worked in areas as diverse as language typology, linguistics and computing, grammatical descriptions, grammar and discourse, functional grammar for English-language teachers, text analysis and translation, the evolution of language.

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Published

2015-07-09

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Matthiessen, C. M. (2015). Reflections on “Researching and Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language”. Researching and Teaching Chinese As a Foreign Language, 1(1), 1-27. https://doi.org/10.1558/rtcfl.v1i1.27271

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